Ricochet is the best place on the internet to discuss the issues of the day, either through commenting on posts or writing your own for our active and dynamic community in a fully moderated environment. In addition, the Ricochet Audio Network offers over 50 original podcasts with new episodes released every day.
Pass the Popcorn: China Threatens Australia
The Australian government under Prime Minister Scott Morrison has generally been restrained in its criticism of China, which is by far its top trading partner. This past week, however, the gloves came off.
In characteristic fashion, it began slowly with “ScoMo” steering a middle course, declining to follow President Trump’s lead into defunding the World Health Organization, but calling for an independent investigation of the origins of the virus and a reform of the WHO. This was too much for China, whose Ambassador Cheng Jingye strongly implied that Australia was acting as a US lapdog. He went on to suggest that China’s full-tuition-paying students might not feel so welcome in Australia anymore, and Chinese people might decide they don’t enjoy Australian beef and wine as much as they used to.
For those of you who don’t speak CCP: Nice little economy you have there. It would be a shame if something happened to it.
[Oh, and for good measure, the ambassador reminded us that nobody really knows where the virus came from. But it wasn’t China. Or something.]
To get the sense of how epic this PRC own-goal was, check out this morning’s Sydney Morning Herald for Peter Hartcher’s take-down entitled, “China’s man in Canberra has unmasked the regime’s true face“:
As for the foolishness of Cheng’s position, it’s threefold. First, he’s been foolish enough to expose the reality of Beijing’s intentions towards Australia. The CCP seeks dominance, through any means possible. This has long been the reality of the Xi regime. I recounted examples of China’s economic coercion against 11 countries in my Quarterly Essay, Red Flag, published last year.
But, to now, the party’s functionaries have delivered their threats and pressure tactics in private and coercion has never been declared openly. Now we all see the truth – there is no goodwill, only gangsterism.
Second, “it’s a pretty inept piece of Wolf Warrior diplomacy because he’s huffing and puffing after the house has already blown down – China has already done more damage to our economy than any boycotts could,” says Rory Medcalf, head of the ANU’s National Security College. Wolf Warrior was a hugely popular piece of Chinese hypernationalist cinema released in 2017.
And third, Cheng’s comments are foolish because an open attempt to intimidate Morrison can only serve to rally Australia around the Prime Minister.
But surely it can’t be that bad?
But Cheng’s foolishness is Australia’s fortune. It is now plain for all to see that the CCP is waging political war on Australia, using trade as a weapon. This is Australia’s moment of clarity. Australia has allowed itself to become more dependent on Chinese trade today than it has on any single nation since Britain in the 1960s and 1970s.
That ended in profound shock when Britain cut its trade preferences with Australia to join the European Common Market in 1973. We failed to remember our history and we have repeated our error.
Now the virus, and the Chinese Communist Party’s conduct, have exposed the urgent imperative for Australia to diversify its risk and defend its sovereignty.
Australia does not accept threats and intimidation from any other nation as the basis for relations. Thank you, Ambassador Cheng, for removing the mask so that we can all clearly see the features of the gangster beneath.
More popcorn, please.
“You call that a knife?”
We’re definitely having one now, but Australia’s recession before this was in 1990. The major (only?) reason for these recession free decades was demand from China. And getting out of this one as fast as possible post-Covid sort of hinges on the China market as well.
So…it will be interesting to see how this plays out. I suspect Scott Morrison (already much more popular due to the Govt response to the crisis) will limit it to stamping his feet.
So…China is going to stop buying Australian beef. And the USA is about to have major issue with its meat supply chain…including beef. Sounds like the time to fire up some American grills and lay some Australian beef on them, don’t you think?
Costco already carries Australian lamb, and the lamb is real tasty on the BBQ.
“If you have a few problems, you have trouble, but if you have a whole lot of problems, they start solving each other.” H. Beam Piper.
Problem? Meet solution . . .
(Or should that be “meat”?)
Xi hasn’t noticed that he has lost the mandate of heaven. It is the Chinese people who are paying and will continue to pay for his rabid thuggery. They have a achieved so much in the last twenty years and then one deranged buffoon is allowed to beggar a billion people.
Lord have mercy.
There are a lot of hard choices coming for everyone. But nationalism is one of the best tried and true methods for enduring through tough times. And nothing breeds nationalism better than having such a clearly identifiable “other” trying to push you around as a country.
Hopefully the Democrats are going to found out how true that is in November.
Actually politicians tend to promote ‘others’ who are incapable of doing anything meaningful- or who may not even really want to. Method still works, just saying.
That would be barbie from the Aussies.
Didn’t someone say something about gum on the bottom of a shoe?
I don’t know if it Napoleon actually said, “Never interfere with an enemy while he’s in the process of destroying himself”, but it sure seems apt in this circumstance.
Aaaaand then:
Sigh.
And ScoMo was doing so well after the bushfires fiasco :-(
It’s where we got our lamb from at EDEKA here in German, too. Good quality. Our beef, though, is either home grown in the alpine hills and Holsteinian flatlands or Irish. Generally.
Australia’s top exports in 2016 from wiki:
One would think 18 and 20 would be higher.
This year they may be.
The Trans-Pacific Partnership would have been an excellent opportunity to defang China. Trump’s withdrawal from the TPP was one of his worst decisions. Hopefully President Biden will be able to push the TPP through the Senate.
That is one of the strangest assertions. You’ll have to explain that one. To me it’s the same as saying rain doesn’t make things wet.
It excluded China.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trans-Pacific_Partnership
Please, no encouragement.